The Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter
Day (Year B) – Sunday, April 8, 2012
Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church,
Lancaster, PA
Text: Mark 16:1-8
ALLELUIA!
CHRIST IS RISEN! [Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!] It's Easter
morning! The tomb is empty! Come one, come all to the feast of
victory for our God! Death has no sting! Hell has been deceived!
Christ is vindicated and sin and death are no more! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Don't you want to tell everyone about it?? Who's leaving
here right after worship to go tell people who've never heard before
that Christ is risen? Anybody going to go explain who Christ is in
the first place to people who have no idea? Who's going out to
explain to everyone exactly what it means and why it should matter to
them that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead?
Huh.
Well, the folks in our resurrection story from Mark today didn't go
out telling too many people either. In fact, it seems like they
didn't tell....anyone. Wait, that can't be right. Let's check. Ok,
Mark 16:8, “So they went out and fled from the tomb...hey, maybe
they're going to tell everyone!...for terror and amazement had seized
them;...oh, that's not good...and they said nothing to anyone, for
they were afraid.” Well, that's disappointing. Wait, how did
anyone know about it? How do we know about it? I guess it's good
there are three other gospels. But what's up with this? The church
is not getting off to a very good start with all this terror and
silence stuff!
Maybe
the risen Jesus has something comforting to say, I remember, say, in
John's gospel how he appears to Mary, or in Luke how he appears to
the disciples on the road...let me see...what? No Jesus? Jesus
isn't in this story either? Mark, what kind of shady operation are
you running here? How do you write a resurrection story with no
risen Jesus and then nobody shares the good news?
I'm
not going to blame this on the women who came to the tomb. First of
all, they actually took the time to come see Jesus' body and anoint
it with spices. Do you see Peter or James or John out paying their
respects? I didn't think so! The women were expecting to have to
roll away a big, huge stone, but it was already gone. That would be
warning sign no. 1 that something weird is happening. Then they
enter the tomb and there's no body to anoint! And even weirder, this
young guy in a white robe, who they didn't know, was just sitting
there. Even more interesting, many scholars think this young man
might've been the same one who a few chapters before was following
Jesus, was caught, and then ran off naked into the streets! I'm not
sure how you would react if you went to visit a loved one's grave and
it had been dug up, and there's this weird dude there who might have
been the guy you saw running naked through the streets a few days
before! I would be, “alarmed,” as they were, to say the least.
And then this young fellow enlightens them: “Do not be alarmed;
(easy for you to say) you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was
crucified. He has been raised (umm, what do you mean, raised?); he
is not here (I can see that – where did you take him?); Look, there
is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter
that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him,
just as he told you.” It seems as though these faithful women
decided they weren't doing anything this fellow told them, as they
fled in terror, their Lord nowhere to be found.
I
think we can fit in their shoes pretty well. I would not be taking
dictation from this weird guy I don't know at the empty tomb of my
Lord, either. Mark tells an honest story, as he usually does. This
is a story of what it probably would've been like if it was you, or
me, coming to anoint Jesus on the first day of the week. Could we
even have processed what this young man was saying? “He has been
raised.” Could we have understood at all the gravity of what he
meant? Jews were among the only people in the world at the time who
believed bodily resurrection was even possible. The God of Israel
could do it. But did it really just happen? Did their Jesus, the
one who they had watched die days before, really be alive once again?
If you
looked honestly at the lives of Mary Magdelene, Mary the mother of
James, and Salome, it probably wouldn't have seemed as if God had
just won the final victory. Still poor, still oppressed, still
unable to worship freely without fear. Look at your own life. We
are a burdened people. Some of you have seen good people you love
fall victim to cancer, or Alzheimer's, or strokes, and slip away
faster than you could ever imagine. Some of you don't know how next
month's, or this month's, bills are going to be paid. Some of you
don't know if you're doing the right thing in the world. Some of you
wonder what you could have done better. We all carry some burden,
some weight of this world's brokenness on our backs. It doesn't
often seem like Christ has just won the final victory for us and for
the world.
That's
why it never depends on us. If we look inside ourselves, we will
never always feel like Christ is risen. We will never always be able
to understand the young man in the empty tomb. We'll never always be
able to see the risen Christ. Sometimes we'll run away in terror.
This is why it depends on God, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead,
the first fruits of the new creation, the beginning of our own
resurrection, the birth of new life for you and for me. In the end,
God kept God's promise. Jesus said at the last supper, “but after
I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” And so this
young man tells us, “there you will see him, just as he told you.”
Galilee
is not just a place. It is where, in Mark's gospel, Jesus proclaimed
the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand, here and now. It's
where he fed the hungry and healed the sick and cast out all the evil
spirits that held his people captive. It is wherever Jesus Christ is
bringing about new life, and a new creation called the kingdom of
God. If you need to see the risen Christ, and you do, you do not
need to look far. The kingdom of God is at hand, here and now, in
this assembly, on this blessed Easter morning. Look the waters of
baptism, look to the bread and wine, the very body and blood of
Christ, you are about to receive. There's Galilee, there's the
kingdom, there's the risen Christ. Look to where people are fed,
like at the community meal, look to where those who mourn are
comforted, where those who feel their own sin are being forgiven.
Look to where the disciples of Jesus are taking the burdens off each
other's shoulders. There's our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the
dead, for you and for me.
The
gospel of Mark tells a story that's surprising sometimes. Those who
are supposed to get it – Peter, the disciples, the religious
professionals – don't. Those who aren't supposed to understand,
do, like the Roman centurion who is the only one who, in the end,
gets it right that Christ on the cross was truly God's son. It might
seem at the end of Mark's gospel that there is no one left to spread
the good news that in Jesus Christ, God kept God's promises. But
here is Mark's genius. There are indeed some left who can go to meet
Christ in Galilee, in the kingdom, and that is every single one of
you who hear this story about God's victory in Jesus Christ. Mark
wrote this for you.
Sometimes
we will run away, sometimes we maybe even have to for a while. Until
Christ returns, sin and death remain in this world, and they remain
all too real in our lives. But their reign is over. They are on
their way out. God is calling you right now. Through your baptism,
you are a part of Christ's crucified and risen body which is in this
world now. Now, you are called by God to live into the kingdom which
will one day be realized everywhere and in everyone. Now, you are
called by God to live the resurrected life, knowing you will not do
so perfectly, but that the Holy Spirit is bringing about the kingdom
in you and through you, and one day you will be perfected, and raised
from your grave, just as Christ is raised this morning. Because
Christ is raised, there will be a day when all of you, and all who
have gone before you, will be raised with him. There will be a day
when no one will be burdened with worry, or loss, or pain, or terror,
anymore. There will be a day when there will be no more war, or
disease, or poverty, or hatred. Christ suffered sin to abolish sin.
Christ died to destroy death. Today Christ is raised. Today Christ
is beginning his work in you, feeding, comforting, healing, making
peace, with your hands, your voice, and your heart. Today you are in
Galilee with your risen Lord. This is the feast of victory for our
God! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
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